I guess this is a weird thing that happens to me and I’m wondering if it happens to anyone else as well.
First off, this has been happening since I started playing guitar and played in bands years ago. Basically, if I was playing something on the guitar one day and there was one or two people in the room watching me, I’d make all sorts of mistakes. But then if later that night I went on stage in front of, say, 100 people and played with my band, I wouldn’t be nervous at all and my playing would be nearly flawless.
Likewise, if I’m showing a buddy some part of a mix I’ve been working (ie: some transition that I really like) I’ll struggle to do it correctly. But later that night at somebody’s house party, I could nail that transition over and over all night if I wanted.
Can anyone else relate to this? I’m just curious what you guys think.
sometimes I feel this way, for several reasons,
a) they are looking over my shoulder and I usually feel unprepared
b) also I feel like I have to show them something quickly or I’m an idiot, whereas on stage I am mixing and the crowd has no idea to expect something special
So I guess it comes down to living up to expectations often being harder than exceeding no expectations for me.
yeah it makes a lot of sense..with a smaller crowd you can tell more eyes are directly on you..it’s more intimate. a larger crowd = less pressure (ironically) because it’s more diversity and shit going on. i worded that really badly but i hope you catch my drift.
yeah the nerves man, they get the best of us. It just depends what kind of situation makes you uncomfortable, once you get “the fear” your nerves are alerted and everything ceases up. I used to use alcohol and drugs to smooth off the edge, but now I’m clean + sober so have been learning new ways to keep my mellow.
Yeah I’ve found that those nerves tend to build off of themselves (ie: getting nervous about being nervous kinda thing).
I’ve found also that even though alcohol and drugs may take the edge off while you’re high, it messes up your head to where you need it to deal with any kind of stress. So really, the drugs make it worse. Glad to hear you cleaned up though.
Yup im with Duerr and Lambox - defiantly don’t resort to drugs to deal with your psychological issues ! Learn ways of beating your nerves sober and you will be far far better off.
It’s only been that past year or two that I’ve stopped throwing up before playing… Used to be anywhere from 3 or 4 hours to 5 mins before playing, I’d have to go puke my guts out… once I got that nastyness dealt with, I’m good to go (:
I don’t think that it’s fright for me anymore, but once in a while, right before I go on, I get really nervous. I get fidgitty and my hands start shaking and i have no idea why. It weirds me out.
Once I start spinning, though, it goes away.
When I’m doing a one-on-one thing, I feel the need for things to go faster cause I don’t want to bore the other person into not listening. This has advantages and disadvantages, of course. But it’s something I’m dealing with now as I’ve been giving DJ lessons.
I know exactly what you mean. A lot of times when I have friends over I get the “show me how all this works” question and I feel like I can’t just do regular mixing, I have to do something over the top. Because really, I don’t want to just sit there and let a song play through that they’ve already heard and wait for the appropriate time to transition. If that makes sense…
I think that I over-analyze the situation and assume that my friends are judging me when really they’re just curious as to exactly what’s going on.
That’s exactly how I get. So, what I do instead, is just jump around in the track and show them how it all works. But the DJs that I like showing things to are the ones that will listen and pay attention and not make fun of me. heh
This is EXACTLY what happens to me… lol im pretty cool headed since iv played sports in front of tons of people but for some reason im all good right until i step in front of the decks its like i get exactly like how DvlsAdvct described but as soon as i got my track going im in the zone lol its weird
